Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/219

 Popular Science Monthly

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��More Things Are Made from Yeast Than Gcx)d Cooks Dream Of

BECAUSE it is so essential in the mak- ing of bread and beer most of us think that yeast is useful for nothing else. But the Berlin Institute of Fermentative Industries calls attention to the fact that valuable flavoring extracts and tonics can be obtained from it and a relatively large percentage of muscle-building matter. _ Its remaining constituent, a mass of cellu- lose, can be used to make a very hard mass, known as ernolith, an excellent non- inflammable substitute for celluloid.

��A Baby-Incubator Made Out Of an Old Soap-Box

ANOTHER use has been found for the . time-honored soap-box, though why all boxes of a certain size and shape should be called soap-boxes Science itself has not as yet been able to decide. At any rate Dr. Alice M. Seabrooke, Superintendent of the Woman's Hospital at Philadelphia, Pa., has invented an incubator which can be made from a box of the conventional soap-box type. The model, shown in the illustra- tion, was exhibited at the annual conven- tion of the American Hospital Association.

The incubator contains all the features of the expensive types, with arrangements for heating and moistening the air and for keeping the temperature under control. It is pro- vided with a glass top with two sections. There are well-protected openings on all sides so that the little patient can be watched and attended without being disturbed.

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��The box incubator which was constructed at a cost of five dollars. Above is a photograph of Dr. Alice M. Seabrooke, of Philadelphia, who invented it

��The tomato-potato plant, with tubers under- ground and perfect tomatoes above. The plant bore abundant crops of both products

Growing Potatoes on the Roots of a Tomato Plant ONSIDERABLE interest has been aroused by the grafting of a tomato plant on a potato plant at the Pennsyl- vania State College. Al- though the idea is not a new one, it demonstrates clearly the ease with which these two closely-related plants may be grafted. Only one attempt was made in the grafting. The common in- verted "saddle graft" was used. The plant was wrapped with rafiia at the junction of the two pieces and it was placed in a humid atmosphere for several days until the union was perfected. Later the plant was shifted to the outside, where little attention was gi\en it. Tubers finally developed on the potato part and tomatoes on the top. According to the authorities them- selves, the demonstration is of inter- est only from the standpoint of its being somewhat unusual. It is of doubtful economic value.

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